Local Food Forum

07/10/2024

Today on the Local Food Forum website...

The Evolved Network NFP is a visionary Chicago non-profit that works to improve the lives of underprivileged youths through farm-to-table experiences. And Chef-Founder Sebastian Brayden White is teaming with Chef Paul Virant and his Vistro Prime restaurant in suburban Hinsdale for an August 5 fundraising dinner (6 p.m. to 9 p.m.) that sounds just spectacular.

Learn about the good works of these two local readers, check out the menu, and click to buy tickets.

https://wix.to/8tDkVsz

07/10/2024

Today on localfoodforum.com:

If you're in the Chicago area and love food co-ops, as we do, then mark your calendar for Saturday, July 27. That day, Wild Onion Market in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood is holding a nearly day-long Grand Opening celebration that promises "music, magic, and prize drawings," along with the everyday assortment of "affordable organic staples, grab ’n’ go items, bulk foods, and more."

Read about it in my blog post https://wix.to/UHe1lzl

FOOD CO-OPS l After a soft opening, Chicago's Wild Onion Market co-op is ready to party. Its Grand Opening celebration will be on July 27...

07/09/2024

In a normal early July, we'd still be waiting anxiously for favorite local summer crops such as sweet corn and peaches. But their early arrival, reported previously on Local Food Forum, has enabled our region's markets to settle into a very pleasing status quo.

There are still plenty of summer crops — melons, field tomatoes, bell peppers that aren't green and purple, and more — that will be coming in as the season advances — but you sure can eat good with food from your neighborhood market right now.

Let's all get out there to enjoy summer's bounty and support our local farmers!

Check out my blog post https://wix.to/L7dQsJl

07/09/2024

The term "regenerative agriculture" has come into vogue in recent years, and I've used it many times in Local Food Forum.

But there are many farmers who have invested much effort to obtaining and maintaining the USDA Organic label, believe organic practices are better for people and the planet, and — unlike regenerative — organic is clearly defined in federal law and regulation.

A campaign launched by the Organic Farming Research Foundation, under the heading of "Organic is Regenerative," indicates that the community of organic advocates is pushing back.

Read about the Foundation's messaging toolkit for organic ag advocates on localfoodforum.com

Check out my blog post https://wix.to/y4VtTp3

ORGANIC FARMING l The term "regenerative" has eroded some of organic's longtime support, but the organic farming community is pushing back..

07/08/2024

Katherine Bissell Cordova is marking her 10th year as executive director of the Chicago Fair Trade non-profit AND her 60th birthday. So the organization is holding a fundraiser celebration on July 14 in her honor. Details, with a link to buy tickets or donate, are on the Local Food Forum website.

https://wix.to/UdOCUcN

EVENTS l The Chicago Fair Trade non-profit is holding a July 14 fundraising party honoring executive director Katherine Bissell Cordova...

07/06/2024

There usually are weeks of anticipation for the arrival of our region’s beloved sweet corn. But not this year, as Local Food Forum reports. The first corn hit a few Chicago markets just before or after July 4. It is only the second time in the 14 summers that we’ve lived in Chicago that we’ve seen corn this early.

I also bought my first summer apples and my second bell peppers and peaches of the year. To paraphrase Field of Dreams: Is this heaven? No, it’s Illinois. But it will do just fine.

Please check out the story, and please pay a market visit to support our local farmers.

https://wix.to/Ok0VSCN

FARMERS MARKETS l Sweet corn may be the most popular crop at Chicago region markets — and it has arrived super early this year around July 4

07/04/2024

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It can also be the most boring... but it doesn't have to be. My article on localfoodforum.com provides five days of breakfast sandwich ideas, including an upscale knockoff of a legendary fast food breakfast item.

Check out my blog post: https://wix.to/qmiyV7S

07/04/2024

There are fireworks over Chicago's Navy Pier every Wednesday and Saturday during the summer. This year, the city decided to stay with that schedule, so the holiday fireworks were on July 3.

It didn't matter. It was a great display, and because we had attended a nearby concert, we got a great vantage point to watch . It produced some of my best fireworks photos, which I share on localfoodforum.com, with a few pix of a cityscape that doesn't need fireworks to inspire.

Check out the post at https://wix.to/ulfrFOf

CHICAGO FIREWORKS l The City of Chicago held its holiday fireworks on July 3. It didn't matter. Enjoy a sample of the beauty in the skies...

07/03/2024

On the Local Food Forum website... Since they opened this spring, Chicago region farmers markets have seen a trend in crops coming in earlier than usual. The sight of long rows of peaches on farms' tables before July 4 is a startling event. Bell and shish*to peppers have made their first appearance, and the summer squash abundance is on.

Read about it in my post, Ain't It Peachy?

https://wix.to/zrWGkeF

06/30/2024

Lemon balm — the subject of the latest in Local Food Forum’s What Is It and What Do You Do With It? series — is an herb with a lemony taste and aroma that makes it great for herbal tea and as an ingredient in recipes.

But in reading about it, I learned that it has been regarded, for millennia, as having significant health and wellness properties. A balm for calm? Find out on the Local Food Forum website.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/lemon-balm-an-herb-for-calm

06/30/2024

Our apartment has a clear view of Chicago’s Navy Pier, where there are fireworks displays every Wednesday and Saturday from late May to early September. We first learned this when we moved into our 30th floor apartment on June 29, 2011, which happened to be a Wednesday.

So we marked our 13th anniversary in our adopted forever home by wathcing the fireworks on Saturday (also June 29), and it brought back that very fond memory.

I share some thoughts on the Local Food Forum website, with some long-distance photos of last night’s pyrotechnics. Whether you celebrate Canada Day on Monday or July 4th, I hope this week shines and sparkles for you. And I hope you love where you live as much as I love Chicago.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/13-years-in-chicago-still-fireworks

06/29/2024

This time of year is prime time for berry lovers here in the Chicago region. While the strawberries we’ve enjoyed for the past few weeks are about tapped out, but we’re now digging in to blueberries, raspberries, black raspberries, blackberries ... and gooseberries?

Local Food Forum’s “What is It and What Do You Do With It?” feature fills you in on this tartly tasty and relatively rare berry. And if you are already a fan, and especially if you use them in recipes, let me know.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/honk-if-you-love-gooseberries

06/27/2024

Today on localfoodforum.com:

Fans of Good Food tasting events... rejoice! Chicago’s Green City Market has scheduled its epic Chef BBQ for the evening of Thursday, September 5.

Your biggest challenge at the event will be choosing bites and beverages from among the 100+ restaurants and producers represented at the event. Many of the region’s top chefs are on hand and serving their food, providing a rare opportunity for attendees to meet and chat with them.

I have been to the Chef BBQ most of the years that I’ve lived in Chicago. I don’t idly throw around the term “can’t-miss event,” but this is one of them.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/chef-bbq-green-city-s-mega-tasting-event-scheduled-for-september-5

06/26/2024

If you are a regular at farmers markets and other purveyors of locally produced food, you know that the growing season is actually multiple seasons. These can be generalized as spring, summer and fall, but the transitional periods between seasons always provide some interesting overlaps.

I explore this today on the Local Food Forum website. See what I found at Chicago’s Green City Market this morning, where some spring survivor crops are overlapping with the start of summer’s peak-season bounty.

While I am a super-devoted local food fan, the publication is Local Food Forum, not What’s in Bob’s Fridge? I would love to see what other folks are buying and I’m betting that readers would to.

And though Local Food Forum was intensely Chicago region-focused when it was an (almost) daily newsletter, one of the goals for our beautiful new website is to expand the publication’s geographic reach. Let’s see what local food looks like in other localities.

So... there is a link in today’s story to email me with your photos and/or thoughts about local food. Please don’t hesitate to use it.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/figuring-when-seasonal-crops-will-kick-is-a-mystery

Shoutouts to , , , , River Valley Ranch & Kitchens, and . Support your local farmers!

06/24/2024

Today on the Local Food Forum website:

The better-for-people, better-for-the-planet farming practices embodied in the term “regenerative agriculture” have gained traction in recent years. But we still have a long way to go in moving our food system from the dominant paradigm of conventional agriculture.

If this movement is going to gain further momentum, it is going to need more young farmers like Joe Wanda, who started in conventional dairy, then recognized that there is a growing consumer demand for locally and sustainably produced food.

Learn about the fast-rising Wanda Farms business that he runs with his wife Hannah, and learn about Joe’s journey in his own words.

Plus, a learning experience on their farm: If you walk among a flock of chickens, they will gather around you and peck at your shoes.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/how-harvard-il-farmer-graduated-to-regenerative-ag

06/23/2024

I’ve enjoyed lemon verbena for a number of years, using it mostly to make an herbal tea. It’s not an item that is all that well known, though, so it seemed a good item with which to start Local Food Forum’s new series, What is It and What Do You Do With It?

It’s an idea that I’ve toyed with and sampled in a variety of formats, but my sparkly new website can accommodate unlimited content and hopefully it’s something that will keep readers both informed and amused.

So, take a look at lemon verbena, with details quoted from the Specialty Produce website, which has detailed information about dozens of produce items.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/lemon-verbena-an-herb-that-fits-to-a-tea

06/23/2024

A Local Food Forum article on Saturday had tips to keep your farmers market food fresh all the way home during hot spells. Today, I share another idea that doesn’t even require you to go outside: home delivery direct from a farm.

To that I have to add the disclaimer that only a handful of farms — most of them with Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscription plans — do home delivery. But I am fortunate that Three Sisters Garden, which grows beautiful produce in many varieties in Kankakee, Illinois, does home delivery in many parts of Chicago, including the one in which I live.

Read about it on the new Local Food Forum website. And if you are similarly fortunate to know a farm that home delivers and want me to give it a shoutout, please share that with me.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/home-delivery-another-way-to-avoid-summer-heat

06/22/2024

Today’s Local Food Forum has photographic proof that you have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat me to a farmers market on a hot day.

Apart from the fact that I am not a hot-weather person, there are some really practical reasons to make an early morning dash during heat waves like the one we’re having now in Chicago. Read why getting there early, before delicate produce gets a lot of exposure to heat, will increase the odds of getting all that beautiful food home intact.

Whatever the weather, let’s get out there and support our local farmers.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/you-have-to-get-up-pretty-early-in-the-morning

06/21/2024

If you’re in the Chicago area and you want to see a great documentary about why regenerative agriculture is so important, head to suburban Crystal Lake Saturday for a screening of Common Ground. This film, which I saw at its Chicago premiere last November, is powerful, entertaining and moving.

The event will be held tomorrow evening, starting at 6 p.m., at the Center for Agrarian Learning at McHenry County College. It’s free to attend... get the details from this article from Local Food Forum.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/get-the-big-picture-on-regenerative-ag-saturday

06/21/2024

Happy Friday, everyone!

It’s a very happy Friday for me, because this morning I launched one of the best features of the new Local Food Forum website: a community events calendar.

This is something I have wanted to do since I launched the Local Food Forum newsletter more than three years ago, and a number of readers have asked for it. The newsletter format didn’t accommodate it, but the website does... and it is spectacular.

I will continue to scour my email, social media, and websites for events relevant to our better-for-people-and-the-planet food community. BUT I NEED YOUR HELP TO MAKE THIS THE BEST... THE MOST USEFUL... THAT IT CAN BE.

And that help is... just send your event information to me, and I’ll take it from there. Info about how to submit your info is in the Substack below.

And if you are not in our Chicago-area base... send your info. The website provides the opportunity to greatly broaden the scope of our coverage, and this Event Calendar can help.

https://localfoodforum.substack.com/p/a-local-food-forum-events-calendar

06/20/2024

I have been an avid home cook throughout my whole adult life, with one particular kitchen quirk: I prepare almost everything by hand. I have excellent knife skills and I’m not afraid to use them. And I spend so much time in the kitchen slicing and dicing that Barb and I have a long-running joke that I may be part Amish.

Which is all preface to today’s Local Food Forum article about why working with produce in general, and shelling English peas in particular, is such a Zen activity for me. (Be one with the green beans...)

It even has a short video of me, yes, shelling peas.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/shelling-peas-is-very-nice-in-my-pseudo-amish-paradise

06/20/2024

If you are interested in a fuller perspective on the Biden administration’s approach to food sector issues, you might be interested in this free webinar — presented by Center for American Progress, a progressive Washington, D.C. think tank — that will take place on Tuesday (June 25) at 11 a.m. eastern/10 a.m. central time.

Titled “Increasing Competition and Fairness in Food and Agricultural Markets,” the webinar features U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Justice Department official Jonathan Kanter discussing the administration’s perspective on a wide range of farm and food issues.

Click below for a fuller description — and a link to register for free — on the Local Food Forum website.



https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/webinar-on-food-and-farm-markets-features-ag-secretary

06/20/2024

Happy summer solstice! The peak local growing season in the Chicago region is upon us, with new crops pouring into farmers markets every week. The new Local Food Forum website is happy to share our home area’s regional farmers market schedule from tomorrow (June 21) to next Thursday (June 27).

Earlier this week, I announced a re-formatting in which we are using the website as the primary vehicle for posting stories. And instead of producing newsletter issues with full content of three or four items, each article gets its own space on the website. (The newsletter lives on with a daily digest of new content.)

This weekly farmers market schedule is a great example of why this is advantageous. Though I was pleased to share the schedule in the newsletter since it launched more than three years ago, the proliferation of farmers markets this time of year made it a clunky, long scroll in that format. Now, on the website, it has its own little place in the world, and you can access it easily if that’s your interest.

Looking forward, this new practice should enable us to feature farmers market schedule in other parts of the country as the website starts reaching a broader audience.

Enough said. If you’re in the Chicago region, please check the schedule, go to your local farmers market early to beat the heat, and support our local farmers!

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/chicago-region-farmers-market-schedule-june-21-27

06/20/2024

Members of Chicago’s chef community have a well-deserved reputation for their willingness to collaborate on philanthropic events. The same is also true for chefs in many other parts of the nation.

As reported on the new Local Food Forum website, The James Beard Foundation showcased this generosity by presenting a panel on June 9 — the day before its annual awards ceremony at Chicago’s Lyric Opera House — titled “The Rise and Impact of Chef Civic Leadership.”

Learn about the purpose-driven advocacy by Chicago Chefs Rick Bayless, .stegner Sarah Stegner, Erick Williams, and matthias merges, as well as New Mexico’s Justin Pioche, who is prominent in the Indigenous food movement.

Please feel free to browse the new site and share your thoughts.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/for-cause-driven-chefs-it-s-not-just-about-the-food

06/19/2024

Tomato plants love warm weather, which is why their peak season is in mid-to-late summer. But they don’t love heat waves, such as the one much of the nation is currently undergoing. In fact, extreme heat can kill delicate young plants.

To the rescue are two experts, Bob Zeni, aka Chicago Tomato Man, and Lena Halberstadt, aka Jersey Tomato Chick, whose helpful tips on protecting your tomatoes are in this Local Food Forum article.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/we-re-having-a-heat-wave-protect-your-tomato-plants

06/18/2024

With my rare out of town trip (to Detroit) last week, I had a brief break from my local farmers market scene. Since we’re nearing our region’s peak growing season, I was pleased (and not surprised) to see lots of new crops during my market visit in downtown Chicago Tuesday morning.

Check out my market haul and read about it on the beautiful new Local Food Forum website.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/suddenly-summer-at-chicago-farmers-markets

06/17/2024

Last call for tonight’s Local Food Forum webinar on the economic and social benefits of community gardens and urban farms. Co-host Chef .stegner Sarah Stegner and I invited you to join with us and expert Nick Davis of Community Food Navigator and local advocates. It’s free and there’s a link in today’s Local Food Forum.

With exceptions, restaurants and other culinary establishments have historically provided little flexibility for women chefs who are primary caregivers for their children. This is why chefs Beverly Kim, Sarah Stegner and others worked to create the Chicago non-profit The Abundance Setting, which advocates for better working conditions and career opportunities for women raising children.

This was a major topic of a panel organized by The Abundance Setting and presented on June 9 in Chicago by The James Beard Foundation. The discussion reached further to discuss how men in culinary balance their work responsibilities with making sure the needs of their children and significant others are addressed.

The panelists were Darnell Reed of Chicago’s ; Mamba Hamissi and Nadia Nijambere of Detroit’s m, which features the East African cooking of their native Burundi (together they were finalists for this year’s James Beard Outstanding Chef Award); and Ann Ahmed who features the cuisine of her native Laos at Kamma Hospitality’s three restaurants in Minneapolis. Meet them in Local Food Forum.

Finally, I happened to be in Detroit last week and took the opportunity to visit Baobab Fare. There are photos that will make you hungry.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/why-it-takes-a-village-to-raise-a-family-in-the-culinary-industry

06/16/2024

I just completed a whirlwind visit to Detroit’s better-for-you food community, and it included a visit to the recently opened and very well received Detroit People’s Food Co-op.

Like most co-op markets, Detroit’s took many years to come to fruition and it is committed to increasing access to healthy food. There are differences, though: Detroit People’s Food Co-op is bigger than most of the new co-ops in the Chicago region; its dedication to providing one-stop shopping means there are quite a few conventional brands on shelf; and it is part of a much bigger project, titled Detroit Food Commons, that is the brainchild of urban food sovereignty pioneer Malik Yakini and his DETROIT BLACK COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY NETWORK INC.

As Local Food Forum develops its new website, we hope to bring you more stories about inspiring projects across the nation.

Also today, Local Food Forum has a next-to-last call about Monday evening’s webinar on the related subject of the economic and social importance of community gardens and urban farms in Chicago’s under-resourced neighborhoods, with the focus on the work of Community Food Navigator, Garfield Park Community Council and We Sow We Grow farm.

Please join co-host Chef .stegner Sarah Stegner and me for this important discussion.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/new-detroit-co-op-power-and-good-food-to-the-people

06/14/2024

So many items we see in produce sections of grocery stores and on farmers market tables came to the U.S. with immigrants. Learn more in today’s Local Food Forum from the latest contribution by University of Illinois Extension and UI Health.

Also, a reminder that the next Local Food Forum webinar, about the economic and social impact of community gardens and urban farms, is coming up Monday evening (three days away). There’s a link to register in today’s issue... you’ll be inspired.

And one sign that Detroit cares about local food.

https://www.localfoodforum.com/post/veggies-with-foreign-roots